Last year: German star Bernhard Langer won the season-opening event for the first of his tour-high four 2009 victories. Andy Bean finished second, a stroke back.

By Jerry Potter, USA TODAY

Fred Couples' back hurts. Corey Pavin isn't feeling any pain now, but there's always another day or another week when some part of his body will hurt.

This is the Champions Tour, and Couples and Pavin are two of the newest members of the 50-and-over crowd that begins play Friday in the Mitsubishi Electric Championship at the Hualalai Resort in Hawaii.

"Fred is Fred," Pavin said by phone from Hawaii. "I don't know how bad his back is. I hope he can play out here a lot. I hope I can stay healthy so I can play, too."

Champions Tour officials have been waiting for Couples to turn 50 for maybe a decade in the hope that his personality and play (when he's healthy) can stir up interest not seen since Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus decided they were too old to play competitive golf.

From 1983 through 2003, Couples won 15 tournaments on the PGA Tour, including the 1992 Masters. For many of those 20 years he was beset by back pain that limited his ability to compete.

"If I don't feel good I will struggle on the Champions Tour," said Couples, who turned 50 in October. "If I get healthy I should be able to win. So, the health thing is the big deal. Since June it has been pretty much downhill."

Couples hopes to play 22 tournaments this year, 12 on the PGA Tour and 10 on the Champions Tour. That could change, once he competes in The Masters in April.

Pavin, who turned 50 in November, also won 15 times on the PGA Tour. The highlight was the 1995 U.S. Open, but he made a name for himself with his tenacious performances on Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup teams.

That's one reason he'll be captain of the U.S. team that plays Europe in the Ryder Cup, Oct. 1-3 in Wales. Pavin expects to skip the Champions Tour in September but until then it's his focus.

"It's certainly a different feel," he said, comparing his first Champions Tour event to a PGA Tour stop.

"There's a lot more interaction between the players, the sponsors and the guests. On the regular tour the players are young and many of them have children, so they don't have much time to hang around with other people."

Tom Watson, who stirred golf last summer when, at 59, he lost the British Open to Stewart Cink in a playoff, begins his season today.

"My goal is to do the one thing I didn't do last year," said Watson, 60. "That's win a golf tournament."

Despite all the recognition he received at the British Open, 2009 was a disappointment because it was one of the few years in a Hall of Fame career in which he did not win a tournament.

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